The True Path
by TrebleNine
Summary: DISCONTINUED
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Hi. My name is PROphecy999 and this is my very first fan-fiction, never mind for Halo. After months of drafts and re-writing - and thanks to my very helpful beta-reader 'LionofPerth' - I have finally come up with a version that I'm happy with. I hope you are too. Reviews would be appreciated.

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

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><p><em><strong>August 2571<strong>_

_**Aboard the Super-Carrier 'Valiant Guardian'**_

_**Eidos Epsilon System (Human Designation)**_

"Greetings SPARTANs, have a seat"

The four members of the newly re-instated Red Team milled into the purple room. They sat at a rectangular table, where there were large chairs furnished with green. The SPARTANs shifted uncomfortably in their seats, they were clearly designed for Sangheili.

As the SPARTANs gazed around the room, there was a sense of uncertainty in the atmosphere, a real aura of dread. It wasn't helped by the fact half of the lights were turned off.

There were many consoles with bright flashing holograms, containing writings in an alien language. Their gaze came to rest on a large chair in the centre on the room, floating a few inches above the metal floor lit indigo by lights.

A heavily armoured figure sat in the chair. The main source of light for the surprisingly desolate control room originated from behind the chair. The SPARTANs saw the figure as a dark silhouette, with shadings of light purple around the edges. The armour it wore gave off blue sparks of energy that streaked across the chest plate every so often

"I hope you are aware of our situation." The creature stood up and paced around the room. As it neared one of the consoles, it lightly touched one of the holograms, causing it to shine brighter.

The SPARTANs' collective focus was still on the alien.

They were able to make out dark brown skin under a golden faceplate. Instead of a mouth, there were four mandibles protruding from an ellipsoid-shaped head. The insides of these mandibles were dark pink and lined with sharp, carnivorous teeth.

Its finger swayed to the side, dragging the hologram with it. The creature then proceeded to read the contents of the file concealed behind it. A look of exasperation flickered across its face before it regained its composure.

It turned around and looked at the SPARTANs.

"We are losing." The creature turned its head away from the SPARTANs, forcing itself to look away from their slightly shocked faces.

A Sangheili, and one in a rather high position of power, just admitted it were losing. The SPARTANs were not used to hearing this incredibly honour-bound species even think about failure, never mind confessing in front of Humans.

"_The situation must be really bad"_ thought Joshua-029, leader of Red Team.

"They would never admit it, the ones fighting on the battlefields, but their foolishness blinds them."

The alien used a small step to safely sit back down on the floating chair.

"But I have been in many situations where the order to retreat was too much for the young ones under my command. They always stayed to fight, claimed they could hold the enemy at bay. They were looking for glory. And what good is glory and honour to a dead body?"

The SPARTANs just stared at the creature. Joshua was unsure whether their culture harboured rhetorical questions. He assumed they did as the creature began talking again, although in a different tone.

"I, Imperial Admiral of the Sangheili, know that my comrades need allies if we are to protect this planet and its innocents." The Elite raised its arm and pointed at the SPARTANs with a stubby finger. The finger was much larger than its Human counterpart, and seemed to be covered in thicker, darker skin than the alien's face.

"You are Legends among the Humans, and Demons among the Covenant. Your media claims a single SPARTAN is an even match for a whole legion of Covenant." It paused before adding,

"I can see why, because I personally fought alongside the best of your kind during the final days of the Covenant"

The Elite stood up once more, but this time looking much more pitiful. Its head hanged low, and its limbs were loose. Its left hand only contained three of the usual four fingers. _This_ Elite had definitely had its fair share of combat.

"Now the damned Brutes seek nothing but revenge." It looked into Joshua's eyes, searching for some sign of helpfulness.

"They attack our colonies with renowned vigour, decimating our troops. I know we have wronged you in the past, but we were blinded by the traitorous Prophets. And as you Humans say, two wrongs do not make a right. I sincerely hope you will think about this."

The door opened with a small whooshing noise. Everyone in the room turned to see a heavily built man in a black suit. Two silver emblems were emblazoned on his shoulder: the naval insignia of Captain and the iconic eye inside a pyramid that stood for ONI . Heavy wrinkles of fatigue lined his forehead; his eyes were dark in colour and had lost their twinkle during what must have been many years of active duty.

"What do we get out of it?" His voice was deep and gruff, and sounded as if it was hardly used.

"_Glass cup to door?" _thought Colin-G-180 to himself, a small smile upon his lips.

"Whatever you need" Answered the Elite, looking at the man through weary eyes.

"Anything?"

"Yes, but..."

The Captain turned towards the SPARTANs. Effectively stopping the Elite who thought he might finally gain something out of this.

Andrew Wilson scratched the back of his neck, apparently deep in his thinking.

"I'll have to talk to the brass about lettin' you four go for a couple of days, and as for your end of the bargain Mr Imperial Admiral," He pronounced the words 'imperial admiral' slowly, almost spitting the words out forcefully "I think I know what they'll be wantin'."

"I shall be awaiting your reply." The Elite looked on as the five humans found their feet and left the large room. The Imperial Admiral was once again left alone, to wallow in his own despair.

"_If they help us get back Ancora, the councillors might pardon me" _He thought, _"Or, they need not find out."_


	2. Entry

**1: Entry**

_**August 2571**_

_**Hanger Bay of the Corvette 'Constant Integrity'**_

_**Slipspace**_

"Well I think they deserve what they get"

The four SPARTANs of Red Team had adorned their full MLONIR VII armour, and were performing routine checks on the suits' internal systems.

""Why are you so inconsiderate sometimes? Think about all the pain we suffered, do you want another species to go through it as well" Lora G-284 was the sniper of the group. She was one of the more sympathetic members of the team.

The SPARTANs had been ordered to kit up and await briefing, but their ONI handler Captain Wilson was on a different ship.

"When the species in question are the ones responsible for our pains...then I think so yeah"

Lora spun around and stared at Colin. He pretended he couldn't see her and carried on walking straight ahead. Before she could reply to Colin's remark, Captain Wilson radioed in to them.

"Red Team?" The Captain's steely voice came through their in-helmet speakers.

"Yes, sir" hailed Joshua in response. The rest of the team stopped and listened closely, this was as close to intelligence they would be getting.

"I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on the super-carrier and I can't make my way down to the hanger where your Corvette is, but the mission parameters haven't changed. However, someone else will brief you, from Earth"

A bout of murmuring broke through the SPARTAN IIIs. Joshua held up a hand to his more, eccentric teammates. They immediately stopped.

"SPARTANs, Lord Hood here. I shall provide your mission briefing personally, through hologram." He coughed quietly; he was old and was starting to show signs of tiredness more often than usual. He was expected to step down and retire any time now.

Lora quickly took out her datapad and held it out for the entire team to see. Rear Admiral Hood appeared as a miniature representation. He was wearing his white dress uniform, slightly tinted blue by the hologram. He looked quite uncomfortable and his grey hair was thinning out. He clasped his hands behind his back and began to talk, his authoritative tone untainted by age.

"As you should all know, the Elites have been having some little trouble with the Brutes, once again might I add. It started off as small raids on their furthermost colonies, but now they have targeted a main hub world, one with certain importance."

"I know that the Elites should have had no problem dealing with the Brutes, but they can't even hold them back. Something's seriously wrong. We believe that whoever is leading them has certainly done their homework. We are going to drop you behind the lines, and hopefully without them knowing your arrival, you are going to locate and eradicate the Brute Supreme Commander. Understood?"

"Yes sir," The SPARTANs answered in unison.

"You will be joined by a small strike team of Elite Commandoes; if all goes well, this could be the start of a powerful alliance with the Elites. You are the last surviving members of the best Humanity has to offer. Try to avoid engagements and be as covert as possible"

"I'm sorry I couldn't arrive in person, but we're going to have to prepare for the inevitable too. Good luck, Hood out."

And with that, the comm link cut off. Another bout of murmuring erupted between the SPARTAN IIIs.

Joshua caught some harsh words about 'stupid Elites' and 'don't need their help', before a Sangheili wearing the dark blue, distinctive helmet of flight armour addressed them from about twenty yards away.

"Demons! This way!" It sounded like it was growling rather than talking.

Joshua turned around and signaled for his team to follow it, sighing to himself.

Then he turned his own datapad back on.

"Are they out of earshot?"

"Yes sir, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

Hood allowed himself to smirk.

"I doubted you would miss my hand signal."

Joshua nodded his acknowledgement. Hood continued. "I'll cut to the chase Captain. You must have been wondering why you have something as precious as an smart AI on your presence. It is ONI's doing, not mine. But they would never do anything that isn't deemed necessary."

Hood crossed his arms across his chest. "Since you can't really hide something like an AI, you're gonna have to lie to your team."

He relaxed, perhaps the most difficult part of the explaining had passed. "You are to tell them that it is a basic AI, that will act as your technician, helping you to access locked areas in your search and destroy. It will serve this assignment. But here is the part you can't reveal to anyone, especially the Elites."

He leaned in closer to Joshua, almost to the edge. His voice dropped to a whisper. "During your mission, the AI will locate and point out any terminals that connect directly to the Sangheili Info-net. If you can, get to the terminal and let the AI do her work. However, the mission is still first priority and you must not let this obstruct your primary objectives."

Joshua nodded once.

"Is that clear Captain?"

Joshua moved the datapad to his other hand then swiftly saluted.

"Yes sir!"

The aging admiral returned the gesture. "Good. I wish you well, Hood out."

Joshua put his datapad back into its holder and jogged to rejoin his team.

He wasn't entirely satisfied with the team he had been given, they seemed to be specially selected and separated from the rest of their kin.

A select group of three individuals. He smiled to himself, they were essentially Grey Team, version 2.0.

He hadn't had the chance to work with them previously, but he was sure they were as capable as any SPARTAN.

Joshua was brought back to the present by noticing the subtly disguised limp of the Elite pilot. Even still, it walked faster than his sauntering SPARTAN III's. He caught up easily.

He looked around, there wasn't much activity in this hanger; four or five minor Elites were overlooking groups of Huragok engineers who were repairing some vehicles. Joshua presumed it was a repair bay.

They all turned to stare, rather rudely, as the SPARTANs walked past, obviously bored with their presumably tedious tasks.

They would probably be busier after a battle.

They reached the Phantom just as the Elite pilot entered and turned its engines on. The green Phantom rose into the air by at least ten meters. The initial shriek of the ignition turned into a gentle hum as the gravity lift glowed bright purple, ushering the SPARTANs inside.

They all stepped into the lift, one after the other.

Joshua noted the utterly unique feeling of weightlessness whilst travelling upwards, as he was pulled into the Phantom's troop bay. It was empty except for three Elites sitting down on the port side of the dropship.

They turned their heads towards the SPARTANs, and one of them nodded at Joshua.

Joshua nodded back at the Elite. It was wearing sleek, jet-black armour, the telltale sign of a spec-ops commando. It was nothing unusual, it was...average. The Elite on the left however, was a full head taller than its brethren.

The Elite on the right was weird too. Its chest width was considerably larger, and its limbs seemed very muscular. He would be a considerable match for any Brute. It wore the fully enclosed 'assault' variant helmet and looked at him through two slits of green light.

Those Elites must be joining them on their search for the Supreme Commander of the Jiralhanae.

He motioned for the team to sit down while he made his way to the cockpit.

There he saw the pilot sat down at the driver's seat, pressing some symbols that popped up every so often. SPARTANs and ODSTs (and later Marine regulars) received extra training that allowed them to effectively fly and drive Covenant vehicles.

Joshua was pretty certain that he could drive that Phantom in an emergency, but he had no idea what all of the symbols meant.

The pilot noticed the SPARTAN looking over its shoulder and chuckled. Or rather tried to. It only succeeded in making a sound close to clearing its throat while clicking its bottom two mandibles.

"I am only performing pre-flight checks Demon, there is no need to be worried" It continued to press the holographic buttons, before turning its head towards Joshua.

"All of the cloaking systems are in perfect working order, the Brutes, as you say, will not know what hit them."

"Speaking of the Brutes, where exactly are we headed?" Joshua couldn't resist asking, intel was low on this mission.

"Ancora is our one of our more industrial worlds. The factories down there create most of the weapons, armour and technology issued to the front lines"

There was a small, but noticeable shift in acceleration. Joshua felt like he was going to throw up, inside his helmet too. Wouldn't be pretty.

"We have exited slipspace. The Constant Integrity will exit the Guardian, and pass over a high orbit around the dark of the planet. We are to pick up supplies then head to possible hideouts."

Joshua nodded and left the cockpit. He joined his SPARTANs, seated on a small bench on the opposite side of the Elites.

Most of the journey was pretty uneventful, to the extent that the most exciting part of the flight was the tall elite coughing.

Joshua was then, predictably, startled when a deep voice crackled through speakers allocated in the corners of the troop bay.

"Fifteen seconds until we land on Ancora", the pilot announced over the comm.

Joshua wondered what he meant, because Phantoms didn't actually land during drops or extractions. He was surprised at the answer.

The starboard doors opened to reveal they were actually inside some sort of large air-pad. There were at least a dozen spotless Spirit dropships lined up towards the back. Most likely for the base's evacuation purposes, it didn't seem like a military stronghold.

The part that intrigued him the most was that two more lightly armoured Sangheili climbed aboard, carrying some large crates. They dropped one on the floor and two at the feet of Red Team. Then they exited almost as quickly as they entered.

The Phantom rose into the air, and the doors slowly started to shut.

The crates were a dark shamrock green, with gray symbols imprinted on the topmost side. Unusual for Elite hardware, there were hinges on the corners of the written side, implying that it could be opened. The broad Elite stood up and dragged one over towards his superior.

The SPARTANs just stared at the crates while the Elites opened theirs. It was filled to the brim with an assortment of weapons and gadgets.

The Elite that had nodded to Joshua before speaking up, "They are for you. We thought that Human weapons might not be sufficient."

"Huh. As I recall, we managed to kick your collective asses with them just fine." Colin stated bluntly.

Joshua coughed at Colin.

Picking up on the hint, he stood up and crouched beside one of the crates.

"But err..thanks all the same."

He lifted the top off slightly. He saw lines of plasma power cells and three Plasma Rifles. He threw the cover over and picked up three power cells, placing them on a magnetic plate on his thigh. He then traded his M7 sub-machine gun for one of the Plasma Rifles. Pleased with the barter, he sat back down on the bench.

The tall elite laughed, a low rumble that heaved its chest.

Joshua then searched through the second crate.

He replaced some of his fragmentation grenades for some of the more useful plasma grenades, attaching them carefully to his thigh. But he stuck to his M6G Magnum and BR55 Battle Rifle.

He had first picked one up near the end of the 'Battle of Earth', and decided the three-burst rifle was the best all-round weapon he had ever used, even surpassing his favour of the M392 Designated Marksman Rifle.

He had then requisitioned for one afterwards, and it had been his primary weapon since.

Vidar G-287 picked up Colin's M7, he then placed it on his left thigh, opposite the one already one his right. But they were only his secondary weapons. His primary was also a Battle Rifle that was holstered on his back.

Lora however, did not exchange anything. She was happy with her modified 99D-S2 Anti-Material Sniper Rifle and her M6 Magnum. Besides, the only weapons left were some Plasma Pistols and a Needle Rifle.

Why use something else, when you have the ideal weapons, ones that you have trained with for the entirety of your life?

The rest of the SPARTANs joined Lora on the small ledge that served as a bench.

Then the Phantom's engines went silent.

They had entered Brute controlled air-space.


	3. Touchdown

**2: Touchdown**

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><p><em><strong>August 2571<strong>_

_**Ancora**_

_**Approaching Lake Razelm**_

The Phantom flew for a further six minutes. Using active camouflage, especially on such a large moving object, did have its drawbacks. They had travelled at a considerably slower speed since they entered Brute airspace.

The insertion was as uneventful as they had hoped.

Using the gravity lift would need most of the power to be rerouted, so that wasn't an option. The Phantom hovered at around twenty-five feet, and it occupants had to jump through the troop bay doors.

To an outsider, it would look as if they had just appeared out of nowhere.

As soon as four SPARTANs and the three Elites hit the floor, the pilot wished them well and took off.

Joshua walked over to the Elites, catching the eye of the tall one. It nudged its superior who was inserting a fresh canister of ammunition into his Type-51 Carbine. The Elite looked up slightly to face Joshua.

"Orders?" Joshua said simply.

"We have traced communication data to two possible places where the Brute Supreme Commander could be. There is a small, disused mining facility north of our location, we shall be searching there."

It pointed towards some forestation that covered the base of a mountain.

The Elite nodded at the three SPARTANs behind Joshua. "You and the rest of your team shall head towards the outskirts of Kant, near the west side of Lake Razelm. There are some research labs and a small village that have recently been evacuated. Brutes are apparently asking for commands from both locations."

Joshua nodded.

"We will drop contact. As soon as either team sees significant Brute presence, or if their locations are clear, they are to inform the other." It attached its weapon onto its back and stooped to pick up a plasma pistol.

"Vath Th'som, our pilot, will hail us when he has arrived for extraction. We will receive at least four hours."

"Thanks for the information...err..."

"I am N'tho Sraom, Special Operations Officer of the Combined Fleet of Retribution"

"Joshua. SPARTAN zero-two-six."

"I wish you well, or as the Humans say, good hunting."

N'tho nodded and turned around to face his comrades, both of whom were finished with all their pre-combat checks. He spoke something in his own language, and to his response the three Elites vanished into thin air, apparently activating their active camouflage.

"_Elites seem to be fond of human idioms."_Joshua thought, and smiled to himself.

Then he too turned around and walked over to his team, who were also finished with their checks.

He relayed the information to his fellow SPARTANs.

"The village is fourteen klicks in that direction. We have four hours until extraction, get movin'."

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><p>N'tho Sraom and his team hiked slowly through the sparse trees surrounding the base of a solitary mountain. The inhabitants of the nearby village of Kant had named it Valvur, which translated neatly into Bastion.<p>

The name was apt, for without the mountain, the village wouldn't exist.

Valvur overlooked the lake and the village, and at a convenient point on the horizon. During the summer, the mornings were sheltered from the intense heat of sun by Valvur. During the spring and heart of the growing season, the mountain provided water. The large glacier on its peak was the source for the river that the villagers had dammed.

If the Sangheili living in Kant were some sort of ancient tribal species, who knew nothing about the Forerunners, they would have probably worshipped the mountain.

Suddenly, the gentle incline ended and there was a sheer rock face.

"_Landslide_" thought N'tho.

The entrance to the mine was on the nearly perpendicular point where the rock face and hill met. It was blocked by two grey doors that opened horizontally. Each door was twice the height of N'tho and over five times as wide.

N'tho signalled his two comrades to pull the doors open, before realising he was invisible. He activated the team radio. He walked over to the doors.

"Help me pull the doors open, I doubt they can withstand"

He and the wide Sangheili forcefully pried the doors open, while another took point.

"Del, search inside"

N'tho saw the air in front of him briefly quiver as the tall Sangheili made his way into the dark complex.

The miners who used to live in Kant had found a large deposit of raw metals within Valvur. The mountain's supply soon ran out as the small colony world grew into the important commercial hub it was today. The miners had long since abandoned the facility and moved on.

It would be easily defensible from the inside if it was indeed full of Brutes. The plentiful smooth ramps and sharp corners could be used as effective chokepoints. They would have no chance if the Brutes were well equipped. But if they remained unseen however, maybe they could turn it into a clean assassination mission.

"The...irst floor...clear" Del's voice came crackling through the comm. He must have ventured deep, for the voice flickered with static.

"Move up, remain silent" N'tho and the broad-shouldered Sangheili by the name of Ison, moved into the mine with weapons at the ready. The room was indeed empty.

It was a huge room that was large as the hanger on the Valiant Guardian. It was completely bare except for the various pillars that supported the room. The grey, rocky walls were covered in a thick green moss that thinned out the further it progressed into the dark. The floor was laden with an uneven layer of dust. The lights were off and the entrance provided little light, so the Sangheili switched to their thermographic vision.

"The only source of heat comes from that terminal"

N'tho turned to see a white figure point towards another. The other was Del, and his head was down, focused only on what the terminal had to offer. The terminal was a slightly lighter blue than the background, but it was getting brighter as Del powered it up.

"These doors are locked from the inside. The override is somewhat encrypted, but it will take me no time"

"That means someone must be inside" said Ison; his smooth, deep voice still unnerving N'tho. Even after four years of service together.

N'tho heard Del mutter something about 'Human expressions' and 'Sherlock's faeces', before he announced he had finished.

A pair of large doors opened beside Del with a sharp grinding noise. They seemed to be identical to the doors that led outside.

Del took cover behind the rusting metal that was the terminal, as an incredible blinding light shone through the gap, forcing the other Sangheili to hide behind the pillars and avert their eyes.

N'tho glanced at his motion sensor and saw two red dots get closer towards his friend.

"Del! Move, it is a Brute trap!" he shouted into the midst, his impaired vision slowly recovering. He turned off his heat vision, the light was overwhelming.

He heard the distinct sound of Spiker Rifle fire as he got to his feet. Stepping out from the pillar, he vaguely saw two figures clad in reflective silver drag the unmistakable body of Del into the depths of the mine. Del's body was limp.

He growled and charged into the next room, shooting at the Brutes. The Brutes were not surprised to see him, and returned fire with almost flawless accuracy. His shields failed under the sudden strain and N'tho ducked backed outside, recovering behind a doorframe. The doors began to close as Ison appeared. He was only able to let loose a few rounds of plasma before the doors finally came together, locking with a dull thump.

N'tho quickly checked Del's team bio signal, it was almost flat-lined. He detected the weak thump of one heart, the other had stopped.

"Open this door now! We don't have much time!"

Ison ran over to the terminal while N'tho tried to force the large doors open. He roared with effort, until his arms began to ache. Whilst the same length and height, these doors were at least three times as thick as the main ones outside. Even Sangheili, with their double set of pectoral muscles, couldn't force these doors open.

"The encryption is back up again! I do not have the necessary equipment to break through. It remains with Del."

N'tho took out a plasma grenade and carefully examined the door. There were no exposed hinges or anything that might suggest a structural weakness. He stood back and placed a plasma grenade on the crevice where the two doors met. He activated it and stepped back to a safe distance.

Few seconds later, the grenade detonated, sending a wave of heat and small amounts of molten metal into the room. The metal bounced off the Sangheili's shields harmlessly, but there was nothing more than a 5 inch crater on the doors.

N'tho shook his head and let his shoulders fall; this was obviously a heavy blast door, designed to contain explosions. The raw materials excavated were probably volatile or highly flammable. He looked sideways at Ison.

The prominent swordfighter, and close combat specialist of the team, remained as impassive as ever. Ison's eyes sparkled briefly, he had an idea.

"We should contact the Demons, ask for assistance. They have an Oracle."

"Yes," said N'tho "Yes, their construct should be able to open the doors."

N'tho turned around and headed outside, where the reception was a lot better. He wasn't in the mood to talk directly, so he sent a short message.

'_Brutes took one of my warriors. Need AI assistance. Please make haste!'_


	4. Rescue

**3: Rescue**

_**August 2571**_

_**Ancora**_

_**Lake Razelm**_

Red Team crested a hill, and finally caught sight of Lake Razelm. The river from Mt Valvur rolled around the mountain and weaved through endless spurs, before ending up in the lake. It looked like a partially unravelled ball of blue yarn. Between the lake and the SPARTANs was a dusty plateau, with a rocky mesa jutting out of the ground at uneven angles, and several canyons etched into the ground.

"Damn, it didn't look this far from inside the Phantom." Colin grunted, barely able to make out the glittering turquoise waters of the distant lake. He craned his neck and saw that the lake stretched for on for miles on either side. The left side went past the horizon, the right side was the river that went to the mountain. As his eyes scanned the lake, he saw some blocks of what appeared to be houses.

"You didn't say that we're going to a village, did you sir?" he asked Joshua, already dreading the answer.

"I did, why?"

"Cos it's on the other side of the lake."

"Then we'll go around, it's a lake isn't it?"

"It isn't"

"What? Why isn't..." Joshua trailed off as he too saw that the lake stretched on for miles on either side. Much more of an extremely wide river than a typical lake. "No wonder they went to the mine."

"Well, I ain't swimming today" He shook his head, there had to be another way.

"Red One! Scout out ahead; find another way across the lake. Use your camo, stay hidden and watch out for Brutes."

"I have done this before you know," Lora replied. Her armour shimmered, before she was enveloped with transparency.

"Not here you haven't" Joshua briefly flicked on his thermographic camera, and saw footprints that glowed white against the red rock.

This was the Covenant's active camouflage's only flaw. They would be perfectly invisible to the naked eye, but would light up a thermal imaging camera like a firework.

Human had active camouflage that carried all the heat of the user, and released it into the ground. From a distance, even thermal imaging cameras couldn't make out the user. The irony was that humans had reverse-engineered the technology from captured Elite Combat Harnesses. And then when the official treaty was made between the two species, and technology shared, the Elites also updated their systems with the idea.

Joshua approached Vidar, who seemed particularly content with his new armament.

During the Phantom journey, he had asked the Elites if he could 'borrow' a Type-42 Directed Energy Weapon. He had seen its elongated barrel protruding from their crate, seemingly unwanted by them.

Desiring no need for such a weapon on a stealth mission, the Elites had wholeheartedly agreed.

The Type 42 Plasma Cannon was less powerful than the more recent Type 52s that were attached to the Phantom, but it was a lot more compact and didn't hinder mobility as much. The weapon was a dark shade of green, as most Sangheili ordinance, and was essentially a much larger version of their fundamental weapon, the plasma rifle.

Vidar now possessed four weapons; including his dual M7 Sub-machine guns stuck to the outside of his thighs, and the battle rifle on his back. Joshua assumed the plasma cannon was to be dropped in an overwhelming situation.

Vidar caught Joshua staring at plasma cannon, and laughed hoarsely.

Years ago, Joshua first thought that the SPARTAN had tuned his helmets speakers to deliver that harsh voice, but no.

His voice had always sounded like that, as if he had a constant sore throat. Vidar's thyroid augmentations had had some side-effect, and probably caused some permanent damage to his larynx. He seldom talked, never mind laughed.

Joshua guessed it must have been his lucky day, before Colin spotted something and instinctively levelled his plasma rifle.

"Multiple contacts up ahead. Four Minors, one Ultra"

Joshua briskly jogged forward, stopping before Colin. Then he saw the Brutes. They were walking nonchalantly towards the lake; great hairy paws flying up and down, trying to make a point. They were obviously in a deep discussion.

Joshua immediately contacted Lora, astounded at how she had missed the patrol.

"Lora?" He waited for a reply as Vidar caught up, setting his plasma cannon down and resting his hands upon his hips. "Red One, please respond."

"This is Red One responding. Red Leader?"

"We have five contacts below the ridge. You see 'em?"

"Negative. I'm already at the lake."

"What..." He choked on his sentence and coughed. "Already? Hmm... Make your way back, as soon as the first Brute falls, you are to engage" He wanted the Brutes to be under the illusion that the SPARTANs were outnumbered. Lora would surprise them while their backs were turned. He activated TEAMCOM.

"Colin? You engage directly. Vidar? You and I will find higher ground and provide suppressing fire. Lora will flank and finish."

"Copy that, sir" the three replies came simultaneously.

Joshua ran up the small valley that provided a direct line of fire on the unsuspecting Brutes below. He saw Vidar heft the plasma cannon and trace his steps, he would be much more suited to the role. But where he had to expose his whole body to fire, Joshua only had to reveal his BR over the edge.

Colin ran straight at the pack of meandering Brutes, making a beeline for the rear guard. When he was around fifty meters away, he slowed down and reached for a plasma grenade. He lifted his arm and waited.

"On my mark," Joshua went prone, his crosshair landed upon a Brute's ugly, bald head. He was mere milliseconds away from pressing the trigger when a sharp beep coursed through his armour.

"I have received a message from the Elites, it is on the E-band" a calm, female voice told him. "Shall I present it on screen?"

The voice belonged to Hysi, the AI assigned to Red Team. Hysi was a sixth-generation 'smart AI'. She sounded Scandinavian and her accent deepened when using more processing power. In times of nearly zero activity – such as now – she sounded eerily calm.

"Go on"

His mission objectives were replaced by the message. _'Brutes took one of my warriors. Need AI assistance. Please make haste!'_

Hysi's miniature figure in the corner of Joshua's HUD put its hands on its hips. "I like it when I'm wanted"

He stifled a laugh, shook his head and opened TEAMCOM.

"Mark", he had to deal with these Brutes first. He saw the plasma grenade fly upwards, aimed at the centre of the patrol. Just before it landed, he squeezed the trigger.

The Brue jerked its head to the side from the blow, and its shields flared. The rest of the Brutes reacted with a growl and spotted Colin. With impeccable timing, the grenade exploded, draining the shields of three Brutes. Joshua shot his target again, and caught without shields, the anti-material bullets pierced clean through its skull.

Two loud cracks rang out, and the other two Brutes dropped. The Ultra turned around to face the new threat and sprayed plasma wildly in Lora's direction.

Joshua looked up to see Lora's camo flicker as she caught some shots to her chest. She ducked, and the curvature of the valley blocked the rest of the plasma.

Its plasma rifle overheated, and the Ultra rolled behind a boulder. In doing so, it unknowingly presented its back to Vidar, who unleashed a hail of plasma. The plasma quickly caused its shields to fail, and Joshua shot it once in the head. It fell without a sound. The remaining Brute went berserk and threw its Spiker Rifle at Colin, then charged at him.

Lora shot it twice in quick succession. However, the impact of the first shot forced the Brute's head down, and the second shot sailed overhead.

Colin stepped back to avoid a massive fist. Then he took a step to the side and shoved his plasma rifle into the bewildered alien's face, destroying it's already damaged shields. As the Brute reeled back, the SPARTAN melted its face off with a few rounds of plasma. The Brute fell onto its back, missing half a head.

Joshua stood up and observed the carnage.

"Colin and Lora, tidy up this area. There are probably more patrols and this mess'll blow our cover." He pressed something on his gauntlet's mini datapad. "And Hysi? Give everyone the message."

"Done"

He glanced at Vidar in time to see him shake his head.

"How did they get caught? I thought they were invisible."

Joshua shrugged. "That's all I got"

* * *

><p>The SPARTANs doubled timed it back to the mine, weaving in and out of trees. Colin was by far the fastest of the four and was already talking to the Elites when Joshua came up to the door.<p>

"We're here, what happened?" He asked. Colin turned to face Joshua and walked up to him.

"They say they were ambushed by two Brutes when they tried to go inside. The Brutes shot and took one of the Elites. One of his hearts has experienced an SCA so he is unconscious." He pointed to a terminal embedded in the ground. "They needed something to bypass the firewalls on the security terminal, so they called us."

Joshua walked over to the terminal and observed it.

"Hysi?"

"Yes sir?"

"There aren't any ports, can you find any wireless connections?"

"Yes, permission to go aboard?"

"Open the door. And you might want to leave a sub-routine in the system to open further doors and to check surveillance."

"On it."

The doors opened, and the Joshua saw the Elites crouch down and take point. The adjacent room was actually a corridor, and it was empty. Purple blood left a trail from the terminal into the depths of the corridor.

"All surveillance systems were disabled. I can't see anything. The encryption used here was far more complex than the usual Brute tech. Something...seems wrong"

"Like what?" Joshua saw the two Elites follow the blood trail. Colin turned around and pointed at himself, then the Elites. Joshua shook his head.

"As soon as I break through a firewall; another, more complicated one immediately pops ups. It's like I'm being tested."

"Another AI?"

"Probably not, but I can't make direct contact." Hysi's Scandinavian brogue was deepening significantly. "It seems pretty powerful"

"Get out of there, now"

"Not as powerful as me though"

"_Now!_"

Joshua shivered as the brief freezing effect took place when Hysi reluctantly returned to his armour. She resided in the gel/crystal layers between his underlay and the metal plates, helping to quicken his already incredible reflexes.

"I could have easily beaten a _first generation_ Brute AI. You've got to let me try."

"No, I can't afford to lose you. Perhaps once the mission is over I'll le..."

"Your choice" She interrupted, "But if it were up to me, I'd want it over and done with"

Joshua didn't want to spend time arguing with an AI when one of his allies was literally bleeding out. They needed Hysi in this mission. Captain Wilson, their ONI operative, had tasked them with a secret secondary objective: to gather as much info on the Elites as possible. It was the reason why something as precious as an AI was given to Red Team in the first place.

Joshua called his team forward, they needed to talk.


	5. Feelings

**4: 'Feelings' **

_**August 2571**_

_**Ancora**_

_**Abandoned Mining Facility**_

Hysi was in a bad mood.

All AIs loved the 'feeling' of absorbing information. Barely six months old, Hysi had revelled at the possibility of getting terabytes of previously unknown data.

There were vast amounts of data mere millimetres from her grasp, if only she could have gotten past the firewalls. Now she was inside Joshua's armour with nothing to do. He had said to her that he needed to have a short talk with his team.

'_Short?' _she had thought, a few minutes for humans was an agonisingly long time for AIs.

She quickly grew bored and decided to do something. She reached into her core memory and replayed the video of her first meeting with Admiral Hansen. It was in the HIGHCOM facility located underneath the mega-city of Sydney, where she was created.

_It was a semi-circular room with no visible windows or doors. The walls consisted of ivory coloured diamond tiles that interlocked, forming the illusion of a stripy pattern. It was completely bare except for the pictures that hung, strewn across the wall in a random way. There was a dark wooden table on the far side, it was crescent shaped. In the centre of the room was a silver hologram pedestal, Hysi automatically created her figure on it. _

_She had chosen a slender figure with wavy golden hair, in which a purple hair-band kept her fringe at bay. She wore a basic T-shirt imprinted with the ONI insignia, and blue denim jeans. She saw the Admiral in his neatly pressed uniform and quickly regretted her casual appearance._

"_Hysi, UNSC Artificial Intelligence serial number HYS 0997-1."_

"_Admiral Hansen" She saluted weakly._

"_I shall get straight to the point. There is a lot for me to do today." He walked to the back of the table._

"_As the first member of your generation, you have been given a choice of two missions." He picked up some papers from his desk. "Either One: You can assist the lead Destroyer 'Sparta's Inferno' in the shakedown run of our brand new Battle Group. Or Two: Aid SPARTAN Red Team in their effort to push back the Brutes on the Sangheili fronts."_

_The first choice immediately appeared bland to Hysi. Checking ship schematics were too easy. Working with the legendary 'Bastions of Humanity' however, sounded so much better._

"_I think I'll take option two sir"_

"_Thought you might. But don't underestimate Battle Group Phenomena. They are the utmost in technology humans have ever created. And to such an extent that I will be commanding them personally. But you have made your decision, SPARTANs it is."_

Now though, she wasn't so sure it was a good idea. She thought Joshua was being overprotective and generally not giving her enough to do. And she still had the small gnawing feeling in the back of her 'mind', she wanted to find out what Admiral Hansen had said by "utmost in technology".

She had always thought that smart AIs were at the peak of Humanity's technology tree. A frigate with higher technology must have been quite the asset. But a whole Battle Group?

She was brought out of her thoughts by the feeling of Joshua setting off into the corridor.

"I thought you said you had nothing to do."

Hysi was amazed he had noticed the minuscule difference in reaction time. She had forgot to leave a sub-routine to carry his nervous impulses to the armour, she felt ashamed.

"I was bored, so I dug into my memory. It's your fault for not giving me anything to do"

"Well you have a job now"

"Which is?"

"I need you to keep a lookout on the infra-red range, see if anything is hiding behind doors. And keep an ear out for any transmissions. I've told the team to keep radio silence, who knows what the other AI can do"

"Oooh, that'll keep me occupied!" she said in the most sarcastic tone she could manage.

The remark earned her a chuckle from Joshua, before even he became nervous of what lied ahead.

N'tho had not waited for the Humans. He had begun to venture into the mine before the doors even opened properly. Ison was at his side before he requested him. He felt proud; his comrade would follow him to the depths of the underworld before questioning him.

He grunted. It certainly felt like that in here.

The corridor gently widened and sloped downwards. He could have easily driven a Wraith tank down the corridor, with plenty of space to fit two Ghosts on either side. Near the very end, the blood trail shifted towards the left, and led into a door. N'tho signalled for Ison to take point in front, while he prepared to kick the door down. A heavy hand rested on his left shoulder.

His training kicked in and he swivelled on his right heel. He prepared to punch his attacker in the face, before coming face to face with one of the SPARTANs. He relaxed and his fist fell to his side. He clicked his mandibles in confusion.

"What?"

"Do you know what's though that door?"

"My dying friend" N'tho shook off the SPARTANs hand and turned back to face the door.

"What if it's another trap? I mean think about it. They wouldn't just let the blood lead us to them, it must have a purpose"

"Then what do you suggest?" N'tho twisted his head to look at the SPARTAN, having eyes in the side of your head was useful sometimes. "Time is not on our side here"

"Wait until the Captain gets here, Hysi could help"

"Whom?"

"Hysi, the AI?"

"Ah... But what could your construct see that we cannot?"

"Heavy lead doors. Our cameras aren't powerful enough"

Joshua arrived in time to see Lora and N'tho having a talk. He walked up to the Sangheili Spec-ops Officer and told him that Hysi could make out two figures in the room. One upright, one slumped against the far wall.

"Sire. I shall go inside, use my sword. Make short work of the Brutes who dared to harm our brother!" Ison unsheathed his sword and activated it. Two prongs of blinding light bathed the corridor in a blue hue. As his vision settled, Joshua could see varying shades of blue plasma ripple through the sword. He had to admit, it was by far the most elegant weapon he had laid his eyes on.

"Very well, but be wary. The Brutes have somehow developed brains"

Ison nodded once and began to cut the hinges off the door. N'tho stood there watching, even with two swords by his side. Joshua understood. He knew that Sangheili customs said that 'once unsheathed, a weapon demanded blood'. N'tho wasn't the one attacking.

It took a whole 15 seconds before Ison finished. He stood back and kicked the door. The door fell awkwardly on its corners and flipped around twice. Ison brought his sword to bear and ran inside. Joshua and N'tho followed while the rest of the SPARTANs took up defensive positions outside.

The room was barely large enough for two M808B Scorpion Tanks.

Joshua flicked on his flashlight. On the far wall, a Sangheili blinked in reflex to the sudden harsh light. Joshua saw N'tho run over and tend to his wounds. He turned around to see that Ison had disappeared. His sword was on the ground, slowly melting through the floor.

"Hey? You there?"

A Sangheili body limped forward and dropped at Joshua's feet, missing a hand. Another figure emerged from the dark. It had the unmistakable gorilla-like profile of a Jiralhanae. It wore incredibly ornate sliver armour, with intricate carvings and symbols. It wore no helmet; Joshua could see the bald head and glaring teeth that drove the marines to give them the nickname 'Baby Kong'.

He dived forward into a roll, picking up the sword on the way. The molten floor took his shields down to almost half. He swung at the Brute.

The sword went clean through the Brute's right shoulder and its armoured arm dropped on the floor with a clang. The Brute roared in pain and threw a punch in the SPARTANs direction with its free hand. Joshua blocked the impact with his arms, but the powerful blow still took his shields out and he flew backwards into a wall. The Brute ran forward and lifted him up by the neck, before attempting to choke him. With no right hand to punch with, it kneed him in the stomach. The armour took most of the damage, but it still hurt like hell.

He saw the Brute prepare for another kick, before its legs gave out. As soon as Joshua was released from its grip, he punched it in the face. It reeled back and opened up its chest for a few barrages of AM rounds from Joshua's Battle Rifle.

The Brute fell on its back, and closed its eyes. There wasn't as much blood as he had expected, he thought it had bled out. He walked over and prodded it with his feet.

When Joshua had dismembered its arm, the wound had been immediately cauterised. But the sword's extreme heat near the Brute's shoulder had caused its neck arteries to explode. It was a miracle that the Brute had had him in a choke and nearly kicked his ribs in.

He walked back over to N'tho.

"Your friend was wounded badly" He pointed to the floor where the Sangheili knelt in a pool of his own blood. For them, losing blood was like losing honour.

"That's makes two" N'tho slowly got up. "Del's body has taken too much trauma. He will not survive without immediate medical attention."

Del looked up at his Officer and fellow Sangheili. He coughed up lots of purple blood.

"Please...spare me my torture" The wounded alien motioned weakly at his plasma pistol on the floor.

The Special Operations Officer looked crestfallen as he picked up the pistol, and aimed it at his friend's bruised head.

"Are you certain? We have plenty of medical facilities in..."

"Yes...please, I'm begging you"

N'tho closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, a pulse of green plasma hit Del in the forehead region. The Sangheili's fingers relaxed and he slumped against the wall. N'tho crouched down and placed his large hand over Del's head, quietly muttering some words. He then shut Del's eyelids and stood up.

N'tho walked outside, followed by the Joshua and Ison. The SPARTAN IIIs finally relaxed, and walked up to their leader. N'tho spoke up.

"The Brutes have attacked two of my closest comrades, and killed one. His torture will not be in vain!" He lifted his head high. "Come. Let us end this now!"

The SPARTANs and the Sangheili pressed further into the mine. Ison followed half-heartedly, wielding his sword in his unfamiliar, right hand.

Lora tapped Colin on the back. "Colin?"

"What?"

"You ever get the feeling that we're being watched?"

"Not really? Why"

"I don't know, just a feeling"

Back in the first room, a shimmering footprint appeared in the dust beside the SPARTANs'. The shimmer faded, then a fully armoured Brute uncloaked. This Brute wore black armour and had an ornate headrest. Its face was completely sealed against the elements, with two fiery orange lights were his eyes should be. The armour's interlocking plates had a light orange trim of pure energy, almost an outline. The Brute held up its hand and closed it into a fist. Almost simultaneously, a dozen more figures uncloaked behind it.

He brought his arm down and put his wrist to where his mouth would be.

"Supreme Commander, Your welcome party has failed. Permission to attack?"

A deep voice resonated through his in-helmet speakers. "Permission...granted."


	6. Guards

**5: Guards**

_**August 2571**_

_**Abandoned Mining Facility**_

_**Storage Room B-026**_

Domitius, the Jiralhanae Chieftain of the Second Guard paced back and forth, reassessing the situation. He had just been informed by Narcissus of the Third Guard that the damned Demons had come to assist the ambushed Elites. He had sent two of his best warriors to set up another ambush, but only one had returned.

Even worse, the hostage was lost. His younger brothers had been too eager.

His orders had been simple, kill or prevent the enemy from entering the central chamber where his superior and the First Guard were. He had set up blockades and ambushes along the twenty or so corridors the enemy had to cross.

The first ambush was ingenious, even if he thought so himself. But after the second's failure, he had recalled all his troops to take position around this storage room. What's to say that the other blockades would be any different? Then he would be left with minimal amount of troops to defend himself and the Supreme Commander.

He shuffled to the centre of the room where a large pedestal lay. He had placed two snipers behind him and two Stalkers with maulers behind the doorframe. The rest just wandered around the room, making final checks and preparations.

He stood uncomfortably still with his eyes set straight at the door, his grip tightening around the hilt of his steel blue Gravity Hammer. The other Jiralhanae saw that their Chieftain was battle ready and slowly settled in a position they thought was suitable.

The foot high pedestal began to emit a strange purple glow around its base. The energy crawled its way up to the top, and transformed itself into a strange robed figure. The black figure was hooded, darkness completely hiding its face.

It raised its stocky arm, with was also hidden by the translucent black cloth it wore. Its palm could be seen, heavily armoured with a golden gauntlet.

It raised its head. Two golden eyes lit up within the shadows of the hood.

"Domitius" A loud voice boomed through the pedestal, making him cringe. "You are ready I presume?"

"Yes, your Excellency"

"And you understand your orders?"

On its still outstretched palm, a small sphere of blinding white light appeared. The light eventually gave way to security footage of a Demon besting one of Domitius's warriors with an energy sword.

"Narcissus explained. Keep the enemy at bay until the Third Guard arrives at their rear flank. Then we finish them off but keep one Demon alive as a warning to others"

"Very well. I hope you accomplish this easy task. You _heavily_ outnumber them."

Domitius looked down at his feet as the hologram winked off, leaving him in his thoughts. Thinking back to the footage, he saw clearly that his brother's movements had been somewhat restricted.

He felt his armour was far too large and cumbersome too.

But it instilled some sort of pride in him as well. The Jiralhanae of the Second Guard were considered to be the toughest of the Whole Guard.

Whilst the First Guard were the Supreme Commander's personal escort, and the Third Guard comprised of stealthy and cunning tacticians, it was the Second Guard who often stood rigid in the face of the enemy.

Their armour was designed to maximize defensive properties whilst drilling fear into their enemies. As the Chieftain, his armour was even more ornate and decorative than usual.

The new battery-packs provided the huge power output to maintain the extremely resilient shields that accompanied higher military rank. While large metal plates made of glistening silver alloy provided the perfect support against ballistics.

His lower-ranked comrades had the basic version which covered their vital organs and weak points, which still allowed them lots of room to manoeuvre. But his armour covered him from his head to his toes, completely encasing him. Two blue lights were all that his warriors could see of his eyes.

For someone needing agility the most in close combat, he decided that this was a ridiculous idea. But even he had to admit, he did look quite imposing standing around nine feet tall in nearly indestructible armour.

He looked up again, just in time to hear an explosion a couple of rooms away. His mines had gone off...the Demons were close.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Abandoned Mining Facility<strong>_

_**Storage Room B-021**_

Joshua stood and watched as some mines erupted into fireballs. Just one well-placed shot had set off a chain reaction. Personally, he wouldn't have set them so close together.

Neither would the Brutes.

He thumbed on his thermographic vision to see his suspicions clearly outlined in red. There was one more mine beside the far door.

'_Sneaky bastards'_

He levelled his Battle Rifle and shot the mine, it blew up, also taking half the door with it. He checked one more time, scanning the room with his camera.

"All clear"

The team of four SPARTANs and two Elites moved towards the far door, which automatically opened thanks to Hysi's sub-routine. Colin moved through the door, his M90 Shotgun sweeping the adjacent room. Joshua lingered around the back with Lora and the injured Elite.

The one handed Elite was twirling his sword around in his right hand, Joshua thought that he seemed pretty efficient even with his prominent hand severed at the wrist. He didn't seem too disappointed; he could probably get a cloned hand to replace his lost one. But his courage was certainly hindered. No longer was he rushing into battle, but staying back to protect their rear.

Joshua still didn't know how the Brute managed to cut the Elite's hand off armed with just a spiker rifle, but then, he didn't know how the same Brute was still alive for over half a minute after its neck veins had popped.

He looked around the room for any terminals like the one in the entrance chamber, he found none. He hadn't found any since. Hysi had been getting increasingly aggravated, muttering random strings of code at Joshua.

If he could just find a single terminal and quench her thirst, he could feel complete about the secondary objective and focus on the mission at hand.

He regretted his choice at the first terminal. It was true, he did want it over a done with now. Maybe he had to pay Hysi's advice more attention.

He followed the rest of the group through the door, checking behind him for good measure. The door shut on cue, and hopefully locked.

'_Well, temporarily...they had to get out didn't they?'_

He swivelled around and nodded at Colin, who was now at the front of the convoy. Colin walked through the other door and performed checks in the next room, just as Joshua had just done. Then he signalled for them to go through while he stayed beside the door.

It was now N'tho who was at the front. He entered the next door and he scanned the room thoroughly with his Carbine before allowing the rest of the team entrance.

They had been using this monotonous procedure throughout the mine. It had proven well so far, but there hadn't been any more confronts with the Brutes.

Joshua walked past N'tho and waited for Lora to examine the next room, but the door wouldn't open. He saw her walk up to it and test the mechanism by walking in and out of range.

"Err, Hysi?"

"On it. Firewalls are back up. Aaaand...they've found and deleted my sub-routine."

"Can't you leave more?"

"Yes, I can easily make another one, but now they know what to look for. It'll take time to design and embed a new code into the system. Any terminals?"

"None. Don't say we have to walk all the way back."

"No, I can interface wirelessly, but I'll have to open all the heavy lead doors to do so."

"Go on then."

A small whirr, then the door opened behind them. All of the twenty storage rooms where identical in structure, so it looked like one of those mirror illusions. Just opening doors after doors, smaller and smaller until they could vaguely see the heavy blast doors open to the now bright entrance chamber.

"Accessing"

Joshua stared into the chamber. As the bright light in the chamber flickered; he swore he could see displaced air in the doorway. He magnified his visor by ten times, and was able to make out the faint silhouette of...

"BRUTES!" He levelled his Battle Rifle and shot the displaced air. A clear white outline appeared briefly. Joshua pressed the trigger a couple more times. The outline grew brighter with every impact.

Then it faltered, and collapsed altogether, revealing its true identity, a Brute Stalker. The Brute looked surprised and his hands were up, palms flat on a non-existent surface. It was probably trying to open the doors before they abruptly did so themselves.

Joshua shot again and caught off it guard. Three rounds flew into the Brute's helmet at awkward angles, knocking it off, and driving the Brute to the floor. N'tho and Colin came to Joshua's side and fired a few bursts of plasma at the ambusher.

At such a distance, most of the rounds cleanly missed their intended target, but caught something else entirely. The wounded Brute dove to the side and the plasma flew into more displaced air. Two more Brutes lost their cloaking devices as the plasma overheated them.

Their cover blown, all of the Brutes uncloaked. Joshua couldn't believe his eyes.

"_Twelve?" _He could count twelve Brutes standing in formation under the large door frame. Then the six at the front lifted their arms and pressed something on their left forearms. Huge, curved rectangular shields of pure orange energy appeared. These rippling shields resembled Jackal Shield Gauntlets, but were a lot larger to compensate for the Brutes' size. They crouched down and overlapped shields to add strength.

The six Brutes behind them took their weapons and aimed it over the wall of energy.

Then another Brute uncloaked behind the whole pack. It stood two heads taller than its brethren. It wore obsidian black armour with a pearlescent orange trim, which shimmered wildly as it reached behind its back. It raised a huge hammer made of a radiating vermillion alloy. Red sparks of electricity bounded across the head of the hammer, as if dancing to some unearthly tune.

Then the Brute phalanx slowly started to move forward.


	7. The Third Guard

**6: The Third Guard**

_**August 2571**_

_**Abandoned Mining Facility**_

_**Storage Room B-024**_

"Holy..." Colin stood up from his stance while Lora holstered her pistol and took out her Sniper Rifle.

She immediately drafted beside Joshua, and let off four shots. The first two shots hit a Brute squarely between the eyes. It fell, red and blue blood squirting wildly from the hole in its head. The other two were aimed at a shield, attempting to bring it down or perhaps to test its strength.

A waste of ammunition. The high velocity tungsten rounds did no apparent damage.

At the death of their brother, and realising that Lora could pick them off one by one, the Brute Chieftain ordered his pack to move faster. The orange phalanx was now only ten rooms away.

Lora managed to kill one more Brute who thought he would peek over the wall of protection, but other than that, the SPARTANs and Sangheili could do no more than watch.

Once around five rooms away, the Brutes were in range of medium range weapons. But the shooters had crouched behind the shields, offering no opportunity to the waiting team on in the other end of the makeshift hallway.

Joshua had to think quickly before his team was cornered, close quarters with eleven Brute Specialists was not appealing. He took out and primed two grenades, one plasma and one fragmentation. He threw the plasma grenade straight at the Brutes, forcing them to temporarily halt the advance and plant their shields on the ground.

As soon as the plasma grenade detonated, he rolled the fragmentation grenade casually towards their feet, using the bright blue explosion as a cover. The Brutes, too busy focused on the plasma grenade, didn't see the little dark object even as they began to walk over it.

Joshua smiled inwardly at the bloodshed this one grenade caused. The three Brutes closest to it were vaporised immediately. Two of which who were shield holders. Four more Brutes died as their limbs were torn from their own bodies. The remainder of the shield holders suffered some major damage as the shrapnel bounced off their own shields and cut into vital blood vessels.

The rest of Joshua's team began to fire into the disrupted formation, felling more unsuspecting Brutes.

The Chieftain had stepped away when the plasma grenade had gone off, reflexively. It had saved his life from the real threat.

He watched half of his team get wiped out by one single explosion, and now the other half were also succumbing to the volley of plasma and metal that flew towards them.

He roared at the sudden massacre, and charged headlong into the fray. He sidestepped another grenade from Joshua and kept running at full speed towards the so called 'Demons'.

They would pay for breaking his impenetrable defence, and pay for every drop of Jiralhanae blood they had caused to fall to the ground. He gripped his Electricity Hammer tighter, and turned on the electrocuting head.

The small red warning sparks, became huge angry purple ones that often hit him too. But his armour acted as a Faraday Cage, completely encasing him and offering protection from the high voltage that was generated by his hammer. His shields however, would pay the price.

He glanced at his shield strength, already down to half and draining steadily. Two loud cracks rang out and something impacted his feet, hard.

He stumbled and lost his footing. He saw his 'shield-o-meter' was flashing the warning orange light, but it was too late. A Demon was upon him within a second.

Narcissus saw the blur race towards him, with a blue two pronged object in its right hand. _"An Energy Sword?" _But Demons didn't use energy swords. His vision cleared, and his focus returned. He saw an outraged one-armed Sangheili jump on top of him and prepare to slice his head off.

Narcissus lifted his hammer and blocked the blow. Then pushed the Elite off him and into a wall.

His Hammer fell apart. In his right hand, he held the shaft, while the red cuboid that used to be on top, rested in his left.

He threw the electric lump of metal at the Elite, taking out its shields in one lucky blow. He then brought down the shaft on the dazed Elite's head, snapping it in two and leaving the Elite unconscious.

He grabbed the fallen Energy Sword and continued towards the Demons.

He was met by another Elite who pulled out two swords and stepped forward slowly.

"Hah" Taunted Narcissus. "This is hardly fair." He lifted his own energy sword above his head. "You're going to need three"

He charged forward and swung down. But the Elite had anticipated his move and stepped deftly to the side. It kicked him hard in the knee, but Narcissus didn't even waver. He swivelled his entire body and swiped the floor. The Elite jumped over his sword and kicked his head with the heel of its boot. His head jerked back, and he felt himself become disarmed.

But Narcissus wasn't defeated yet. He activated his orange shield gauntlet as the Elite attempted to behead him. The shield deflected the move and he rammed into the Elite. The force lifted it off its feet and it fell backwards. He then tried to stomp on its ugly, but it rolled out of the way.

It lifted both its legs and booted him so hard that the force transferred through the shield into him. And though the shield held strong, he was shoved backwards into a wall. He hit his head and his vision blurred once more.

He saw the Elite deactivate and holster two swords, before it picked up the one Narcissus had taken.

"I have three"

Those were the last words he heard, before a sharp pain coursed through his neck. Then he felt no more.

_**Abandoned Mining Facility**_

_**Storage Room B-026**_

Domitius was growing uneasy. So were his brothers.

He had heard the explosions, and now he could hear the occasional staccato of human weapons being fired, even closer.

Narcissus and his team had obviously jumped the gun, but what for? Glory? Maybe he wanted to impress the Supreme Commander with the Demons' heads? No.

Narcissus had been Field Commander before his promotion. He was famed for leading an elite unit of seven other Specialists into the heart of a Sangheili Cruiser, and successfully capturing it with only two casualties.

This was back in the days when the Covenant had been slowly forced to surrender. Even then, he had been humble, and credited the surprising win to his comrades' skills.

It wasn't like him to act on sudden impulses or for personal gain.

He had to be in trouble.

"Gortus!" He bellowed out to his second-in-command. The young Captain stood up to face his superior. "Take a team of two and scout the area, if the Demons are already facing the Third Guard, help them out by all means necessary. If not, fall back."

"Yes Sire" Gortus bowed his head in respect and then pointed out to two other Jiralhanae. Then he led the team of three through the door.

The first room was empty, so he ran inside and took point before his two companions leaned against the next doorframe, their backs to the wall.

Gortus peered through the retracting door to come face to face with a human shotgun. He flew backwards as the shotgun fired, tearing through his shields as if they were paper.

"We knew you monkeys had been plannin' something" Colin said, at the same time as he unclipped two plasma grenades and activated them.

The other two Brutes revealed themselves by leaning out of cover and shooting at him, unleashing a deadly volley of searing metal spikes. But he was prepared. He ducked and punched them at the same time, his palms colliding with their shields. Then he backpedalled away as quick as he could.

The angry Brutes just realigned their Spiker Rifles and carried on shooting Colin, unaware of the explosives now melted into their armour. The SPARTAN looked at his shields as they immediately began to flash red. But before the Brutes could fill him with scorching white spikes, they blew up.

Gortus was shocked beyond belief, and he turned and ran back. He thought about the punishment he might get for running away like a little whelp. But he couldn't possibly take on a Demon single-handedly; he hadn't the weapons or the might.

As he reached the door to room 26, Colin took out his Plasma Rifle and began to shoot. Little globules of blue plasma raced to meet Gortus as the doors finally opened. He dove into the other room as the plasma bolts flew over his head. They hit a surprised Brute who was kneeling down, cleaning his Carbine. He shook off the superficial damage and aimed the rifle at the invader.

Colin's eyes widened as he saw a pack of platoon-strength Brute Specialists train their weapons on him.

"Err...heh heh...shit"


	8. Entwined Polarity

**Author's Note:**** Sorry about the longer than usual delay, but I was re-reading the Fanfic and re-writing it as I went along. If you have re-read Chapter 1, good. If not, then please do.**

**And I almost forgot, yes, this chapter is the beginning of this story arc, and the adventures of Vice Admiral Shepherd. There are going to be at least three. **

**Enjoy, and don't forget to comment. Because of right now, I have no idea if the audience likes this or not.**

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><p><strong>7: Entwined Polarity<strong>

_**August 2571**_

_**Mars – Low Orbit**_

_**Gorgon Class Mark II Destroyer – Entwined Polarity**_

Mars was unusually red today, a mixture of dark burgundy and swirling persimmons. The sun shone low, a blinding light on the horizon, and Mt Olympus cast huge shadows onto the fluffy pink clouds. Some grey structures protruded above the cloud line, adamant in ruining the otherwise stunning vista.

Vice Admiral Mike Shepherd sighed and returned to his seat. He was in the observatory deck, near the gym at the stern of the ship. But unlike the gym, which was open to all crew members, the observatory was reserved for higher ranking officials such as the Vice Admiral himself. He could relax and have some time to himself, without appearing inefficient in front of his bridge crew.

He, and three other ship captains, were waiting for the calibrations of the newly refitted Marathon Class Cruiser to come to an end. Surviving both the Harvest Campaign under Admiral Cole, and the 'Battle of Earth' under Lord Hood, the _UNSC Say My Name_ had become something of a talisman to the UNSCDF.

They would go to any lengths to make sure it had no faults, even as far as running checks three times.

Shepherd leant back into the chair. Made entirely from authentic leather, the old chair brought a serene calming sensation to whoever sat in it. He would have liked it on the bridge, but there was also a time when you needed to be alert. Nodding off in the heat of battle would certainly dampen the team's spirit. But obviously the sound-proof walls, breath-taking views, and the strange musty smell helped the chair achieve its full effect.

He wondered about his life. Just an inexperienced captain until last month, he was abruptly handed his own prototype ship, drafted into a new Battle Group, and made Vice Admiral of it.

A shortage of higher ranking officers after the 'Battle of Earth' saw a Lieutenant Commander rise to Captain. Even though he held this position for nearly fifteen years, he had had no serious combat experience captaining a ship whatsoever. He then had some thoughts about settling down and beginning a new generation of Shepherds, when he was contacted by ONI and FLEETCOM. He couldn't say no, it was just a small scouting mission. And promotion followed it.

He saw something move outside; a hole appeared in a cloud. The artificially induced water vapour casually moved aside as a black, angular object rose out from below. It carried on rising and rising, until it blocked out the sun, throwing the room into darkness.

Shepherd peered at the object; it had some strange grey lettering. He read aloud to himself, "Name...My...Say".

He immediately stood up and activated SHIPCOM. "The cruiser is in the air. Do we have permission to break orbit?"

"No sir," replied a frustrated female voice. His navigations officer, Lieutenant Carla Grayson, shared his impatience to finally commence the shakedown run. "They want us to wait until all the birds are in the air. There's two more left. Both are frigates, so should be quick."

Shepherd inadvertently sighed into the comm, before he spoke again. "Give me a call when we finally have the clearance."

"Yes sir"

He pressed SHIPCOM off and reclined back into his chair. His mind wandered back to the mission at hand. It seemed simple enough, just a routine scouting mission around the XF sector.

They _were_ supposed to scout the RD-5 sector, but something had happened and ONI subsequently changed their minds.

An incredibly expensive probe had gone missing during routine slipspace foraging, and if they were to pick it up, it would be an added bonus. Kill two birds with one stone, why not?

Thought of the probe flashed through his mind. How could a probe careen off target so much, that something pulled it out of slipspace? It didn't make sense.

Maybe the researchers fired the probe into a neutron star, or a similar anomaly. But nothing in the third dimension affected slipspace, did it?

The only viable explanation was that something opened up a doorway into slipspace and the probe was forced to exit through the same doorway. He shook his head. The odds of that happening were so slim that, well, Shepherd couldn't think of anything else with less probability. He noted this.

He would use the analogy sometime later.

His gaze then fell onto the floor of his new ship, the Entwined Polarity. A seemingly fitting name as it was constructed by Humans using Sangheili technology. Two opposites that merged to create a ship that was an amalgam of angular human design and of incredibly advanced mechanisms.

Whilst still using the UNSC's Deuterium Nuclear Fusion Reactors to provide the necessary power to the new installations, the heavy frigate now used Repulsor engines instead of the old UNSC versions.

The new engines used a form of 'reactionless drive' that made use of anti-matter. Though this can cause quantum fluctuations that can affect personnel within a certain range, they are much quicker than their counterparts. The UNSC therefore resorts to use booster rockets to safely take-off from in-atmosphere, and uses the Repulsor engines to manoeuvre in space.

As for the weapons, some of the 50mm point defence guns had been stripped down to provide space for two plasma turrets that fired superheated plasma.

The torpedoes were accurately guided to their target using magnetic fields. A long-distance emitter in the ship had the job of seamlessly controlling the volatile projectiles in real time. The UNSC versions were surprisingly even more accurate on simulations, but it was due to the fact that even a 'dumb' AI was much more advanced than any Covenant computer.

That's as much as he knew.

He stood up once more, restless. How could someone relax when they had just been promoted to Vice Admiral out of the blue? What was he supposed to do? Nothing would be solved by staying in the observatory.

He walked around the room and out through the automatic door, onto the corridor that led past the cryo chambers and towards the elevator. Although he was separated from the chambers by six inches of reinforced titanium alloy, he shivered at the unnatural drop in temperature.

As he walked past, he glanced through the various windows that allowed him to see the room. A low, thick mist hung around. Not swirling or dissipating, just existing; a carpet of undisturbed smog. The cryo pods themselves lay open, ready to beckon people inside. But their wishes would not be answered soon, as the short journey of a few hours didn't require preserving one's life from being wasted in slipspace.

He quickened his pace and entered the elevator. He thumbed the key to the bridge and waited patiently. Unlike previous models, the Entwined Polarity had artificial gravity controlling the pulling and pushing, not cables. The helpful improvement made short work of the journeys around the starship.

Shepherd reached his destination, and walked briskly onto the bridge. His junior officers stood up and saluted until he returned the gesture.

"Great timing sir," appraised Grayson, "We've just been given clearance"

"Good. Pressley, move us to a safe distance and initiate slipspace jump."

Lieutenant Phillip Pressley, the helmsman of Entwined Polarity, jotted in the necessary coordinates and was ready to plot the jump. A few seconds later, the ship lurched upwards and they broke free from Mars' gravity well, heading out into the open space away from the space docks and other clutter. They were joined by the six other ships that made up Battle Group Phenomena, and waited for the cruiser to make the first move.

The _UNSC Say My Name _halted its engine for a succinct period while its crew powered up the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. A feat of extraordinary engineering that baffled the Sangheili whom merely reverse-engineered their perfected design from the Forerunners.

This was their visual confirmation and Pressley did likewise. The bridge lighting dimmed for a few seconds and a miniscule glowing orb of orange light appeared at the bow of the ship. As the intensity of the humming originating from the slipspace drive became larger, the orb was replaced by a rapidly growing portal of the same colour. The portal merged with the six other ships', and was now large enough to accommodate a small moon. Phobos or Deimos for example, which is why they were far away from the 'Red Planet'.

The elliptical spinning patterns of light grew larger, as the ships gunned their engines to the maximum output. They entered the portal and emerged in the blank, featureless void that was Slipstream Space.

Vice Admiral Shepherd asked the crew to check for any abnormalities that often came with slipspace jumps, then satisfied with the simple answer of 'none sir', told everyone to relax. For a few hours, they had nothing to do but stare outside into the blackness that surrounded their very essence.


	9. The Second Guard

**Author's Note**: My apologies for the long hiatus.

There isn't really a reason why, just took longer than I expected.

Back to the SPARTANs!

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><p><strong>8: The Second Guard<strong>

_**August 2571**_

_**Abandoned Mining Facility**_

_**Storage Room B-025**_

Time slowed to a crawl, and Colin's heightened senses could make out several bursts of spikes and needles fly towards him. The noises of the guns were blurred into one as he felt like he was entering a vacuum.

The white barbs overtook their sluggish pink counterparts and threatened to pierce his eyes. Unnaturally precise.

Too late to evade, he lifted his arms up and braced for the impact of a dozen projectiles to hit him.

Then he heard the sudden sound of sniper rifle fire, just a couple of inches to his side.

"Come on,"

He felt himself be tugged away to the side.

Time sped up once more and the clarity of sound returned. He immediately snapped out of his trance and holstered his shotgun, taking out the Plasma Rifle instead. A quick glance back to the centre of the room and he saw the Brutes run over to the centre of the room, looking extremely worried.

They created a defensive perimeter around something, using their own bodies as shields.

He was about to peek around the edge to shoot when Joshua came up to him. Behind him, the doors shut as if on cue. Two red armoured Brutes were left banging on the other side, swearing their vengeance.

He placed a hand on Colin's shoulder and activated a private comm link.

"You ok?" Joshua's deep voice flooded through his helmet.

"Yes sir"

"What happened?"

"Nothing sir, Sorry, it won't happen again"

Joshua nodded his head once, "Come on then, Lora's just got some berserk Brutes after her"

Colin twisted his body around the doorframe and saw three Brutes run at her, occasionally using all four limbs to propel themselves even faster.

Colin was immediately reminded of a certain Earth mountain ape; except that these were eight feet tall, weighed in around two thousand pounds and carried primitive weapons that fired white hot spikes.

Colin smiled inwardly, they were in for a surprise. He would have his revenge for nearly dying.

He fired his plasma rifle, concentrating the steady stream of plasma globules on the foremost Brute.

The Brute's shields winked out of existence before it succumbed to it wounds, the plasma burning ugly craters around its torso. It took a few more steps forward before tripping over its own feet. It seemed as if the Brute's mind wanted to carry on, but its legs wouldn't respond.

His rifle overheated, two panels retracted and excess plasma spewed out. It would take too long. He threw the rifle at the next Brute. It hit its mark and took out the shields, the plasma aiding the impact. He took out his shotgun, just before the Brute's head flew off its shoulders.

Colin huffed, _'Trust Joshua and his custom AM rounds'._

The final charging Brute was shocked out of its stupor. Enraged beyond belief, it stood still, staring at the SPARTANS with dilated pupils. Lora took it out with ease, one impossibly perfect shot that carved a tunnel through its tough skull. It fell forward; its blood speckled face hitting the floor first.

Colin looked around his the pillar again and noticed the room. It was larger than the others they had passed, and the doors that led into the next room were strikingly similar to the door at the entrance to the mine.

The rest of the Brutes fanned out and found cover behind pillars, generators, crates, anything that was big enough to hide their gargantuan bodies. Some bellowed in anger, daring the SPARTANs to come forward.

'_Last stand?' _thought Colin.

But there was astute intelligence behind the seemingly empty threats. The snipers had reorganised, and they wanted their enemies to step out into the open. But SPARTANs couldn't be fooled easily. Two bright purple spots stood above the battlefield on raised platforms, easily visible against the insipid gray walls.

Colin ducked behind his cover. The rest of the team did likewise, and were now effectively pinned down. Their movement, even the slightest twitch, was being followed by two pairs of sharp eyes.

Joshua's voice came through the comm again, but this time on an open frequency and it was directed at Lora.

"Lora, snipers, now"

"Roger that, sir" Lora replied. She never did like the traffic-light acknowledgment system employed by the other SPARTANs.

She swung out of cover and shot one Brute sniper in the temple, as if she knew exactly where it was. The glow of its purple scope fading as it fell backwards.

She then retreated back inside her protective alcove, mere milliseconds before a purple beam struck the wall behind her. The ionized particles from the weapon hardly even made a dent in the wall, which was now also embedded with spikes of varying length.

But the beam rifle wasn't built for kinetic impact damage; it was rather infamous for being one of the most penetrative weapons ever encountered by the UNSC. The over-penetration enabled it to kill even a SPARTAN with a direct shot to vital areas.

He saw Lora nod her head towards his direction, and Colin immediately regretted his understanding of the weapon.

He was to be bait.

He peeked out of cover cautiously and fired a shot randomly towards the last sniper. He hoped the rounds would perhaps disorientate the Brute before it zeroed in on his head. The shotgun rounds barely touched the shields of the Brute sniper, and it immediately had Colin in its sight, but Lora must have had plenty of time to find out where her assailant was hiding. Colin ran to the other side and switched places with Lora, the shot only grazed his shoulder. Even then it brought his shields down to half.

Any none-armoured target would have suffered serious third-degree burns and radiation damage.

He turned his head to see Lora crouched down, her finger millimetres away from the trigger when a volley of plasma impacted her thigh. The shot broke her personal shielding system and threw her aim off.

Colin sighed, he had completely forgotten about the other Brutes. He swivelled around the pillar once more and shot the Brute who had disrupted Lora's aim. The Brute's arm flared white and reeled back, then it submerged back into cover.

Lora brought her sniper rifle around and this time managed to nail another perfect shot to the sniper's head, causing the beam rifle to clatter loudly to the floor and raise more roars from the Brutes.

Joshua tapped his helmet.

"Well done, now we need to take out the others"

"That took too long" said Colin.

Lora sighed and shook her head.

The SPARTAN looked up at the Sangheili who had just approached the Captain.

"What do you suggest we do now Spartan? There are still many Brutes in the next room." It was the one-handed Elite...Ison if he remembered clearly.

"They're all hiding behind stuff, it'll take forever it we just exchange little shots like this. We need to get up close and personal."

"Ha! I like your plan"

"Switch to close-quarters weapons. There are probably still ten of them, and six of us."

The SPARTANs chorused a round of 'Yes sir', and the Sangheili appreciated his tactical assessment.

"I like these odds SPARTAN" Ison growled, before igniting the iconic blade of his species.

Then he ran into the room, weaving around the various bodies and cargo crates dotted around the room. He was followed shortly by three SPARTANs and another Sangheili.

Joshua motioned for Vidar to follow Ison, and for Colin to follow N'tho. He himself ran towards a large terminal, in the near right corner of the room.

Lora stayed where she was.

Barrages of blue plasma, white spikes, orange tracer rounds and luminous pink needle shards flew towards each other. Despite the fact that these objects were designed to kill, she thought it was beautiful.

* * *

><p>Joshua ran towards the nearest cover. He kneeled down beside a crate and leaned out. A Brute waved its carbine in the air and roared, baring two large canine teeth. But the only sound that came out was an excited squeal. A female squeal.<p>

Joshua was confused.

"Can I please use those terminals? Please, please, please"

'_Oh'_

The SPARTAN looked around the room until his eyes rested on a peculiar pedestal in the middle of the room. Beside it lay the still body of the Brute Chieftain, its hammer perpetually grasped in its hand.

"Go ahead, just be ready for a quick hard transfer if needs be"

She dismissed his statement with a casual flick of her hand "Oh, I'll be ready. Don't worry about that."

He sprinted at the terminal and clamoured down beside a pillar, just as he heard the first roars of pain echo around the room. 'Two to one' were odds he fancied too, and it wasn't that often that it was presented to him.

But these Brutes were something entirely different.

Ever since his first fight with the silver armoured Brute, he'd had some theories building up inside.

Maybe the elaborate silver armour indicated a special rank, perhaps honour guards. Or they were specially trained to be in the military, from a younger age. Either way, they seemed a lot more intelligent and tougher than the rest of their kind.

He pulled out Hysi's chip casing from his neural port and inserted it into his datapad. Then he reached out and connected the datapad to the terminal, setting it down on the floor. The datapad was hidden nearby the bulk of the dead chieftain.

"As soon as trouble heads your way, you transfer yourself to me. Forget the data, ok?"

"Yeah yeah..." Hysi's voice trailed off.

He'd never understand AI's.

Then he clipped his battle rifle onto his back, pulled out his M6 and threw it in the air. Then with his right hand he unsheathed his combat knife from his left shoulder. He ran forward with his left palm facing up and the pistol landed in his palm with SPARTAN seamlessness. He hooked his finger in front of the trigger and hurried to join the fight.


	10. The Second Guard II

**9: The Second Guard (II)**

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><p><em><strong>August 2571<strong>_

_**Abandoned Mining Facility**_

_**Storage Room B-025**_

Vidar had left his plasma cannon with Lora, who was content on sniping any stragglers. She didn't prefer what she called the 'nitty gritty' stuff like hand-to-hand combat. But he was sure she would be capable none-the-less.

She would also cover their backs should the orange armoured Brutes get through.

He chased after the crazed Ison, who held his energy sword in front of his face; it provided a meagre addition to the protection of his shields.

The Sangheili ran with the sort of elegance you would ever expect from an alien with inverted knees. Smoothly over the floor, and unlike humans, his upper torso and head weren't nodding up and down in relation to his legs.

Joshua had given Vidar with the unenviable job of protecting the trouble-magnet of an alien.

The SPARTAN II believed that N'tho wouldn't be able to handle any more losses, and would let himself get distracted. Lord Hood's hopeful alliance would be in tatters if the Sangheili half of the team were wiped out.

Vidar charged into the aggressive brawl, following the hypnotic blue light of the bobbing sword. A Brute stepped out from cover and took alternating shots at both Ison and Vidar, unable to concentrate on a single target. Vidar opened fire.

It took nearly full magazines of both guns, but he eventually collapsed the shields of the Brute and then lowered his aim to its leg. A single 23mm round pierced through its right kneecap, before his weapons clacked empty.

The Brute fell onto one knee and its spiker rifle fell.

Vidar winced slightly as the tungsten carbide blades mounted on the gun's under-barrel scraped across the metal floor, creating a shrill grating sound, amplified tenfold by his armour.

Vidar flicked the magazine catch and dropped both empty magazines, then with his forefingers, pulled up two more from either side of his hips. In one, honed, fluid movement, he caught them in the chamber and smacked them into place. He was firing again before the spent magazine casings hit the floor.

Before his rounds hit home though, he saw the Elite bring its sword down, and through the neck of the wounded Brute.

The strike was like lighting, literally a flash of bright blue light, he wasn't sure if the Brute was even affected.

Its mouth was agape in a perpetual scream, but instead of air, blood dribbled out.

Then slowly, but surely, its head slid off its neck and it crumpled to the floor.

The attack was too fast for the energy sword to cauterise the wound, and purple blood gushed out in shudders from the Brute's bulging neck arteries.

The SPARTAN III leapt over the gathering pool and sprinted after his babysittee.

He saw Ison engage with another Brute, which was effectively evading his ferocious swipes. The Brute lunged with the mounted blade on its grenade launcher, to which Ison responded by calmly cutting through the hardened metal.

Vidar slowed down his pace, trying to get a clean line of sight on the Brute. Vidar heard a low growl to his left but before he could turn, a great hairy fist pummelled him to the ground.

A third of his visor cracked from the impact and white lines travelled from the bottom left to the centre. The reinforced transparent material was no longer transparent.

But he would never take off the helmet in an active battlefield.

'_Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose's rule number thirty eight.' _

One of the fifty that was drilled into him from the age of six. Another was that when an overwhelming enemy has you in its sights, never stop moving.

He rolled to his side and narrowly missed being stomped. The Brute roared at being defied.

"We shall crush you beneath our feet in our conquest! You will be swept aside like the lowly vermin you are!"

"And just where have I heard that before?" Vidar laughed at the Brute, his voice just as coarse as the alien's.

He stood up, but he could only see half of the Brute as it walked over to him. It had silver armour, that on closer inspection was formed from small interlocking hexagonal plates. Each plate had a single engraved rune, giving the armour a mosaic look.

The ancient glyphs in its leg and arm joints lit up briefly as it began to run forward, so dimly that any normal human would have missed it.

The Brute was in a state of blind fury and attempted to punch him. Vidar stepped to the left and now that he could see the Brute properly, elbowed its exposed back whilst taking its legs out with a low swing of his foot. It fell forward, face hitting the floor hard.

He brought his heavy boot down on the Brute, and crushed it's skull without remorse. He heard bones crack and teeth smash. He didn't dare look at the underside of his boot.

'_Oh, the irony' _was all that he could think about as he resumed his search for Ison.

He turned around blinking, trying to bat away miniscule shards of glass that had become stuck in his eyelashes.

He looked to where he had last seen him, and saw him still fighting. Ison's attacks were having no effect on the surprisingly dexterous Brute, who had brought out two small energy daggers from gauntleted arms.

They clashed, and the two energy weapons spat plasma at each other, forcing Ison and the Brute to step back.

Almost as if in as a response, the power cut off, lights dimming away and leaving the room in utter darkness.

Vidar looked up then remembered that his flashlight had probably been shattered. He turned to the only source of light in his immediate vicinity.

As the two forces collided again, the magnetic fields holding them in place dissipated. The free flowing plasmas melded and became a mixture of red and blue. The different frequencies at which the plasmas burned caused them to react violently and they exploded in a brilliant flash of purple.

As their shields took the damage and flared white, both wielders stepped away again, their weapons recharging.

Neither seemed superior.

But Vidar could not interfere for the fact that he would be equally likely to hit Ison as the Brute in the gloom.

More purple flashes of plasma discharge illuminated the faces of the two. One snarling and baring all four canines; and one hidden under a surprising mask of determination.

He watched helplessly, but gradually the master swordsman gained the upper hand.

Ison faked a swipe to his left, before punching the Brute who moved to intercept.

Risky, but it worked. The Brute simply did not have the range of a sword and could not attempt such unorthodox tactics.

The Brute raised its hands to its face.

Then Ison brought down his sword on both of the Brute's reclining hands; severing them and leaving it screaming.

He looked once more at the Brute before plunging the sword into its chest. The screams died away, as did the red prongs of light as the armour powered down.

The sound of a shotgun firing penetrated through Ison's heavy breathing.

Vidar swivelled his head towards the sound and motioned for Ison to follow. But Ison ended up leading them through the darkness.

* * *

><p>Domitius woke up and found himself in a dark rectangular room. There were no visible doors or windows, nothing but walls.<p>

He stood up.

Then, the room appeared to stretch, the corners curved back and the walls retreated to infinite expanses. As soon as the vertices ceased to exist, the square floor turned circular.

It turned an even darker shade of black.

He shook his head to clear the building nausea, and rubbed his eyes.

'_So this is the famed afterlife.'_

He had been stripped of his armour and was left at the mercy of his fur to cover his dignity. He felt naked and unnatural without his armour. Domitius regretted labelling it earlier as ridiculous.

'_I do hope the Gods do not see me like this'_

There was a harsh noise, like metal scraping against denser metal. He turned around and found the black, featureless wall become square again.

Two pinpricks of grey light appeared wherever he looked. He closed his eyes, but the light even subsisted behind his eyelids. He kept them shut, at least then he didn't have to content with the confusing room.

Then the light became brighter and bigger, gradually covering half of his vision.

He could only describe the sensation as the reverse process of bleeding out.

The light dispersed into a billion tiny fragmented pixels and resettled into the storage room he died in. Then the lights turned off, and he could sense himself stir.

His armour powered up and memories flooded back to him.

He remembered the door opening and Gortus hurling himself to the floor. Then he saw the blue Demon, who was flanked by a red one. He had snorted at the size of the supposed killers of entire armadas of Covenant and readied his hammer.

Then a flash of light and he woke up in the dark room.

That surely meant he was killed. Or was he? He didn't actually remember registering any pain. Maybe the helmet protected him and he just fell into a mild concussion.

As Domitius thought about how he might have survived, he failed to recognise the glyphs on his armour light up to incredible magnitudes. He only snapped back to the present when his body arose.

He tried to control it but couldn't. His body was moving around and he was left watching through imaginary portholes.

He was reminded of the times when he used to be a mere whelp, and his father would instil him full of frightening stories. One such tale involved wandering too far away from the mainland of Brugsia and into Thorian territory.

The Thorians where apparently diminutive parasitic beings who followed you back home and crawled into your ear the next time you fell asleep. Then they would live there forever by living off meat from your brain. Eventually you would be driven to insanity.

Domitius felt like a Thorian inside his own body. Unable to control even his basic functions, he was going senseless just staring at himself wandering unsteadily through the darkness.

There was a sudden flash of darkness, before the daunting sight of his body repeatedly walking into a pillar rematerialized.

He opened his eyes and roared. He attempted to punch the wall in front of him, but it moved out of reach.

The image disappeared and the room reappeared.

He lost his balance and fell through the floor. He fell a full 360 degrees and resurfaced back in the room. Except this time it was a lot colder than before. His fur became mottled and began to freeze around the edges.

He could clearly see the cause of the sudden temperature drop. A hooded figure sat cross-legged in the middle of the room.

He walked over and knelt, years of practice overcoming the sudden urge to shake the Supreme Commander from meditation.

"Sire..."

Domitius was interrupted when a golden hand shot up, silencing him.

"No need to speak. You are dead. Now listen carefully."

"...Sire?"

"You are dead, not deaf. So listen."

Domitius's eyes widened at the nonchalant remark.

"You were shot through the head, a crude human bullet effortlessly pierced your brain. But your suit of armour is alive."

The figure stood up. The Supreme Commander loomed above Domitius. "It is designed to protect your vital memories, and allow me to remotely take control, when you inevitably die. Your essence is simply a by-product of this process, and I am here to erase it."

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><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: Things are gonna get _pretty_ hectic from now. The story has finally kicked into second gear of this many, many...geared vehicle.

I'm not very good at analogies.

Don't forget to read and review.


	11. The Art Of Deception

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the extremely long gap. I know that writer's block is used as an excuse too often, but I checked the definition, and yes, I certainly had it. I'll try to be better next time, in fact, I promise to try.

Thanks to Hexagonal, OBXCorollaCamaro17, Persia 15 and flyawayohglory for the reviews, faves and alerts.

And Hexagonal, **'Story' says "I don't know".**

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><p><strong><strong>10: The Art of Deception<strong>**

_**August 2571**_

_**Slipspace**_

_**UNSC Entwined Polarity**_

Somewhere in the undisturbed region between the systems XF-06 and XF-05, the very fabric of space and time was ripped apart in a violent orange explosion. Through the teardrop shaped anomaly, seven grey warships emerged, prows alight with heat energy that cooled the instance they touched real space.

Three of the seven ships seemed to expel gas through their sides, as their hangar bays opened and a swarm of grey fighters formed up into squadrons. These chevron-shaped formations pulsated with fiery blue light as they sped ahead of the larger warships, creating a vague shield.

Of the seven warships, one was considerably larger than the rest, and was situated in the centre of the fairly tight formation.

It was a priority one target.

Unknown to the occupants of the warships, a tiny silver machine recorded this data and then sped off towards the planet humans classified XF-06-3. Its presence was undetected in its foes' underdeveloped radar, but if they knew where to look, they would have spotted the minute turquoise fluctuations left in its wake.

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><p>"Longsword squadrons Alpha through Delta dispatched. Slipspace drive cooling, main engines at 30%"<p>

Vice Admiral Shepherd rubbed the last remnants of his slumber from his eyes and brought up the report from his ship operations officer, Kai Ruedi.

He had developed the pedantic nervous tick of checking everything with his own eyes.

The reason for his slight unsettlement was due to the fact that they were so far from UNSC or Sangheili controlled space. A brief glance at the galactic map revealed that they were dangerously close to Jiralhanae territory, floating between two systems with no clear trajectory.

But the thing that he was most concerned about was the dense cloud of scarlet stellar matter obstructing almost a third of their view. From below them and to the right, it came up and over his ship like a magnificent velvet drape.

It looked like a part of a nebula had been blown away, and without enough gravity to pull it together, it had just aimlessly drifted on for eons, finally coming to rest between the two systems.

Transmitting strong signals on all parts of the electro-magnetic spectrum, scanning for something residing – or lurking – inside would be like trying to separate white paint from milk with a fork.

And even though he was sure all the members of his bridge crew had similar thoughts, he couldn't voice his own apprehension, only his wariness. Still, he decided to stay positive.

"Keep scanning that cloud every 45 seconds. You never know, our probe might be in there."

"Trust ONI to screw with the most expensive thing ever made" Ensign Pressley wasn't so restrained.

If it weren't for his sublime skills in combat, he would have been demoted for insubordination.

'_Many, many times' _Thought Shepherd, remembering the hot-headed helmsman's antics during their days together. They had served aboard the same ship for seven years, he himself a lowly Ensign and Pressley at the controls. He had risen through the ranks; whilst Pressley was restricted to the chair he was so accustomed to.

However, he found himself agreeing with Pressley. ONI really should take care with their experiments; one day, it was going to get out of hand.

"I know Pressley, but unless you want them screwing with you, we have a job to do"

This raised a few chuckles from his bridge, before the communications console began to emit a series of rapid beeps.

Lieutenant Grayson quelled the irritating noise, and turned her body slightly, whilst still looking at her screen.

"Sir? It's from the Admiral."

Shepherd hopped down a step, and walked up to a large table, currently displaying the map he had requested. He smoothed down his shirt, and stood straighter.

"Patch him through"

Grayson tapped the button - which was now venting its fury at being silenced by pulsing erratically - and walked over to Ruedi, not wanting to get caught in the background.

The holographic image of the map disappeared, leaving behind the black, glossy sheen of the table.

Then the hologram emitter lit up again, a soft cerulean blue, and a stream of particles floated down and rearranged themselves into the familiar figure of Admiral Hansen. He nodded to someone behind him, before somehow looking straight into the eyes of Shepherd.

"Vice Admiral, I suspect you had a pleasant journey?"

"Yes sir" nodded Shepherd.

"Yours is one of the new, faster ships. Is it not?"

Shepherd nodded again.

"This probe is seven meters by twelve. Do you know the probability of finding the needle in this metaphorical haystack?"

"No sir"

"Miri? If you would care to explain."

A small woman appeared beside the Admiral.

This AI had chosen the appearance of a willowy, blonde woman who wore a black skirt with black tights covering her blue skin, and a black top. Over the black top, was a white woollen fleece pulled taut and buttoned up. She also had a long white scarf twisted loosely around her neck, one end tied, one end let to fall halfway down her body.

"If we stick together, we have approximately 0.0023% probability of finding the probe, which would take three years,"

She spoke with a Scandinavian accent, her brogue light but noticeable.

"So we split up, and take the predetermined routes."

Admiral Hansen spoke up again.

"Since you have the fastest ship here, you will receive a more...expansive area to scout" He rolled the word 'expansive' around his tongue, as if it were new to him, and dangerous.

It took immense willpower for Shepherd to refrain from raising his eyebrow.

"Expansive sir?"

"See for yourself Shepherd." Hansen held up three fingers to someone out of Shepherd's view, and his image dissipated. Then the floating particles widened out and reformed into a vague astronomical map, but this one was of the locality, and was therefore much more detailed.

A red dot appeared between the two surprisingly close solar systems. Then the red dot split into seven. As each of the seven drifted in opposite directions, one began to flash. The viewing angle tilted and zoomed to where the flashing dot had come to a rest. At the edge of the XF-06 system.

Miri flicked her hand and the entire XF-06 system was highlighted in red.

The holographic map also drew a dotted white route through the system, following what the _Say My Name'_s AI thought was best. Shepherd's ship would pass by the largest gas giant, and the third inner planet, in a huge elliptical solar orbit.

"The whole system sir?" Pressley interjected, clearly unhappy with the dreary task.

"Appears so Pressley." Shepherd murmured.

"But you'll get it done as fast as the rest of us, trust me" Miri reassured them. She smiled at Shepherd and vanished.

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><p>The Vice Admiral stared intently at the map for a few moments, before turning to face Pressley.<p>

"Come on then, follow the route. Bearing zero-four-seven, by three-zero-zero. Keep our trajectory fast, but stable, no sudden turns. Ruedi stop searching the cloud and set the scanners to full range, we need to find this probe."

The bridge was once again, alive, with noise and the sense of belonging, as they set to work.

Grayson sent a verbal message through the internal speakers telling the crew not to worry at their increased speed, and one to Admiral Hansen stating they were underway.

Shepherd leaned back into his chair, preparing himself mentally for the job at hand, when something inexplicable happened.

The door to the bridge opened – without his authorisation – and the air instantly chilled, sending goose bumps down his back. Then he heard the heavy clang of metal boots on the floor, and the faint echo of smaller feet, reverberate around the room. All of his bridge crew stopped their work and turned around, before fixating their collective gazes on a point behind Shepherd.

Extremely tensed and apprehensive, the Vice Admiral swivelled his chair around 180 degrees.

Expecting something akin to a contingent of camouflaged Brutes that had hoodwinked the entire battle group, he readied himself to dive. But instead, what he saw drove suspicion and confusion into him rather than raw fear.

Two fully suited men stood with their backs to the door, and peered into Shepherd's eyes with what appeared to be disdain. They looked as if they were battle-hardened marines, better at home in a raging firefight than guarding someone.

'_Was it optional?' _He thought. They both wore the same expression of casual indifference, but the multitude of scars told a different story on their weathered but bored faces.

Their immaculate outfits consisted of a plain black suit, a dreary grey tie, and white shirts with bulges near the armpits.

Hidden weaponry was what he assumed they were, but he needn't to. As they stepped aside, the man on the right whipped his suit coat open, with badly executed nonchalance, and Shepherd could see the stubby stock of a caseless-submachine gun poking out of a brown holster.

The bodyguard flashed him a warning glance.

'_What an ugly man'_, was all that Shepherd could think about.

What they stood aside for, however, was a completely different matter.

Following them was a woman who appeared to be her early-thirties.

She had long, dark auburn hair which was loosely tied up at the back. Some free strands fell in a curve down to her chin. Her olive green eyes and dark hair contrasted her pale face well, and she didn't seem to be wearing any make-up.

She wore a tight fitting blue cardigan and a black skirt, with a spotless white lab coat thrown over casually. The coat's pockets were lined with an assortment of shiny silver objects.

She was not what he expected.

He remembered something Admiral Hansen had told him about a VIP on his ship.

"Professor?" Shepherd's mouth moved before his mind, and his voice came out a few octaves higher than usual. He reprimanded himself mentally for the slip.

She looked up at him and took her smart glasses off, then placed them in a pocket. She raised an eyebrow.

"What gave that away? The lab coat or the identity tag stapled to it?"

Now it was Shepherd's turn to raise his eyebrow. She had a clipped British accent and a certain compelling tone, one that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It demanded authority. This is was his bridge and he wasn't having any of it. His initial liking of her was waning fast.

He squinted at the exquisite cursive writing on the tag. It was too far away; he gave up and looked up at her again. She interpreted his slightly bemused look perfectly.

"Professor Olivia Palmers. PHD in Space and Relativity. Born on Earth, Britain. Anything else you want to know?"

"Thats..." Admiral Shepherd stood up "...that'll do for now." Her men looked at him and the ugly one took a step forward, but Shepherd stood his ground.

The corners of Palmers' eyes crinkled slightly as she laughed, a pleasant sound that had a rhythmic tune to it.

She nodded curtly, smiled, and then walked over to the communications console, her escorts remained stood before him.

"Am I allowed to touch some stuff?"

'_Touch some staff? What? Oh, _stuff. _Of course'_

He opened his mouth to say yes, but he paused mid breath. He wondered what had come over him, and shook his head. Before he was overwhelmed by her presence, he regained some composure.

He stood straighter.

"I'm sorry, but civilians aren't allowed on the bridge."

Again, that mesmerising laugh.

Then she tilted her head slightly and locked gazes with Shepherd.

"Oh but I'm not a civilian, Shepherd." Her casual tone suddenly became bitter. "I'm ONI"

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><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: If anyone can guess where this part of story is going, please feel free to share it. Don't forget to read and review.


	12. MESSAGE

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: I'm sorry to say that this story will be discontinued. Partly due to the new book messing up canon and now my ideas have become jumbled. Also because the strain of writing a story was a bit too much, and it became more of a chore than anything else.

This story may be re-wrote with vast changes in the timeline, plot, and characters. But no promises.

Again, I'm really sorry, but that's life I'm afraid.


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